Nine children and one adult die in a car accident in Alabama 3:20
Camp Hill, Alabama (CNN) -
- Nine girls and one adult were killed in an accident involving multiple vehicles on Interstate 65, near Butler County, Alabama, on Saturday, according to the Butler County Coroner, Wayne Garlock.
Eight of the dead girls, ages 4 to 17, were in a vehicle from the Tallapoosa County girls' ranch, Garlock said.
The youth ranch provides a home for neglected or abused school-age girls, according to Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches, the nonprofit that runs the Tallapoosa County girls ranch and others across the state.
A 29-year-old father and his 9-month-old daughter who were in another vehicle were also killed, Garlock said.
The crash happened on I-65, heading north at milepost 138 - Saturday afternoon - during storms that hit the state, according to Garlock.
A tropical depression called the Claudette dumped heavy rain in the southeast on Saturday, after it made landfall in southeastern Louisiana that morning.
A witness described the accident
A CNN producer witnessed the accident while driving home in Atlanta from a family trip to the beach in Destin, Florida, with her husband and 6-month-old daughter.
Lacey Willis said the weather had been bad about an hour before the accident.
At the time of the accident "it was not a downpour," he said, but there was still a lot of water on the road.
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Willis was in the back seat of the car with his daughter when he felt an impact, he said.
Their car had hit a railing, activating the airbags and sending them onto the median lawn.
Immediately, she said her husband told her they needed to get their daughter out of the vehicle.
Willis said he grabbed his daughter and was walking as far from the crash site as he could when he noticed the vehicles had started to catch fire.
Ten people, including nine girls, died in the crash, according to Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock.
"I'm barefoot, standing on I-65, walking, walking far enough," she said.
"I was just praying."
Willis's husband helped pull a family, a man, a woman and their two children, out of a truck that had overturned, he said.
People were asking someone to call 911, Willis said, but no one knew what mile marker they were at.
"There was a man without a shirt," he said.
"I was screaming, I was looking for nurses, doctors."
Willis said she and her family were at the crash site for five hours.
Some people got stuck on the side of the road because their cars were on fire, he said.
Willis said she was "very grateful" that her family was able to "get away" but acknowledged that "there is a small aspect of guilt."
"The lives of those families have changed forever and I hope that somehow people will find a way to be well," he said.
Because this was tragic for many people.
We are very, very lucky.
9 minors and one adult die in a car accident involving an Alabama Girls Ranch vehicle
The Girls Ranch bus driver was the only survivor in that vehicle
The driver of the small Girls Ranch bus was pulled from the burning vehicle, Garlock said, but rescue personnel were unable to reach the girls in time.
In the other vehicle, the father was pronounced dead at the scene, Garlock said.
The baby was taken to the Regional Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
Garlock noticed that she was properly restrained in a car seat, but said the impact was too strong.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has asked members of the public who may have photos or videos of the accident to forward them to authorities.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced Sunday afternoon that it would dispatch a team of 10 investigators to the scene of the accident, describing it as a "multi-vehicle crash."
The team was expected to arrive on Sunday night.
The "NTSB investigation will focus on vehicle technologies such as forward collision warning systems, CMV fuel tank integrity, motor carrier operations and occupant survivability," the agency said in a statement.
NTSB investigators will work in coordination with the Alabama Highway Patrol.
Girls Ranch director lost 2 daughters in accident
The only survivor of the Girls Ranch vehicle was the director of the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, according to Michael Smith, CEO of Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranchos.
The principal lost two of her own daughters in the accident, Smith said, and is currently hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
She was likely saved by bystanders who pulled her from the vehicle while she was unconscious and trapped inside, Smith said.
"His life was saved and we are so blessed with that," Smith said.
"Unfortunately, we lost the other eight passengers."
"We lost eight young people who can make a difference in our world, we lost eight young people who did not have the opportunity to have their own children, we lost eight young people who cannot break the cycle of where they have been and change the situation for their children", Smith said.
"That is a sad day."
The ranch is run primarily through donations, so a GoFundMe was created to help with funeral expenses, medical costs, and counseling, according to the page's organizer.
Smith visited the crash site Saturday and said it was unlike anything he had ever seen.
The damage was so extensive that he could not recognize his own truck.
The director has been with the organization for nine years, Smith said.
17 months ago she became life director at the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch.
"I just visited her today at the hospital, and she's talking, and I was with her this morning and I went to say 'goodbye' to her and that she was coming to the ranch," Smith told CNN.
"And she said, 'Please tell my daughters that I love them.'
People gathered at Reeltown High School in the east central Alabama town of Notesulga Sunday afternoon to offer support and counseling to the families of some of those killed in the crash.
Chancellor Clifton Maddox told CNN that people had come together to "show families and students that they are not suffering alone."
Four students from his high school were killed in the accident, Maddox said.
The atmosphere in the high school gymnasium, now a makeshift counseling center, was heavy, with several people crying and many shocked by the news.
CNN's Keith Allen and Deanna Hackney contributed to this report from Atlanta, with Greg Clary in Washington, and Martin Savidge and Devon Sayers reporting from Camp Hill, Alabama.
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